It’s ten forty-five and I have already had a bowl of cereal and an egg salad sandwich. It is so quiet both inside and outside. I don’t think egg salad will fill up the hole. I am smiling….

It all comes down to a little half-smile the buddhists speak of.

Surely you can manage a half-smile today amidst the cacophony of the world’s distressing downfall. For goodness sake, don’t try to make it a better place. Let it go altogether.

I am letting books go and find the empty space filling up quite nicely with more empty space. The more emptiness, the more fullness. Are you nodding your head? The fuller your schedule, the emptier you feel.

I have no idea what it will take me to get through all of this emptiness. I may have to hire truck to haul some of it away. I have yet to see a Donation Box for excess emptiness yet. As Leonard Cohen might say, “I’ve always been greedy that way.”

To be greedy for loss is quite amazing. Too much fullness is dangled before us daily. Just say NO.

Vicki Woodyard

From “Night Comes On” by Leonard Cohen

“We were locked in this kitchen
I took to religion
And I wondered how long she would stay
I needed so much
To have nothing to touch
I’ve always been greedy that way
But my son and my daughter
Climbed out of the water
Crying, Papa, you promised to play
And they lead me away
To the great surprise
It’s Papa, don’t peek, Papa, cover your eyes
And they hide, they hide in the World”